Continuous bat assembly machine and method



May 12, 1942. c, G, `10A CONTINUOUS BAT ASSEMBLY MACHINE AND METHOD Filed April 15, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheekl l ,l O INVENTOR.

Caer dof?.

, ATTO EYS.

C. G. JOA

May 12, 1942.

CONTINUQUSv BAT ASSEMBLY MACHINE AND METHOD- Filed April l5, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. 60er G. dan

ATToRNEY.

Patented May 12, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENT oFFlcE CONTINUOUS BAT ASSEMBLY MACHINE AND METHOD Curt G. Joa, Sheboygan Falls, Wis., assigner to Curt G. Joa, Inc., Sheboygan Falls, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Application April 15, 1939, Serial N0. 268,074

18 Claims.

density, width and form; to make the building of such a bat automatically dependent upon the functioning of the sanitary napkin machine to which the bat is supplied; to provide improved means of delivering the loose fluffy pulp material to the bat; to remove dust from such material and to provide adequate variable control over all of the several portions.

Other objects will appear in more detail from the following disclosure of my invention.

In theV drawings:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view in sideelevation of apparatus for continuous bat production and delivery in accordance with this invention.

Fig. 2 is agreatly enlarged detail view taken in longitudinal section through a pulp transferring and metering wheel used in the device of Fig. 1. Y

Fig. 3 is a view of the wheel shown in Fig. 2 as it appears in section on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary detail view in horizontal section through that portion of the machine in which the bat is formed.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary detail view in transverse section on an enlarged scale of one of the adjustable bat forming side plates.

Like parts .are identified by the same reference characters throughout the several views.

In the particular embodiment of the invention here illustrated, the continuous bat assembling mechanism is organized to deliver the assembled bat in a continuous web to a conventional sanitary napkin machine. It is particularly designed for use with such a sanitary napkin machine as is illustrated in my Patent No. 2,131,808, which includes a die such as that shown at 8 mounted on a vertically reciprocable head 9 carried by the horizontally reciprocable carriage I for-cutting successive pads from the advancing end of a suitable web of pad material. The die 8 may be driven through suitable operating connections from the motor I2 to which reference will hereinafter be made. The web of pad material is fed over the table I of the sanitary napkin machine by an overhead belt I6.

To assemble and deliver the web continuously to table I5 the mechanism now to be described has been particularly designed.

The frame of the present machine comprises suitable pulley supports for the belts 20 and 2|. Belt 20 is driven through connections not here illustrated, at the desired speed of delivery of the finished web. Delivered on to the surface of belt 20 from the parent roll 22 is a continuous web of tissue which serves as a facing for the completed web of pad material. A similar web 24 of tissue is delivered from the parent roll 25 on to the lower surface of the inclined compacting belt 26 which progressively approaches belt 20 to pack lightly the loose pad material delivered between the two plies of tissue 23 and 24, which operate on the opposed faces of belts 20 and 26.

Between belts 20 and 26 are adjustable side plates 28, one of which is shown in detail in Fig. 5. By any desired mounting these plates are made adjustable laterally and may also be adjusted angularly. In the device illustrated in Fig. 5 the plate 28 is hinged at its bottom margin to a mounting plate 29 secured in any desired lateral adjustment to the machine frame by means of the hub 30. An arm 3| pivoted to the upper portion of plate 28 is slotted to pass over the clamping bolt 32 of a bracket 33, whereby the side plate 28 may be'tilted to any desired angle to produce a beveled edge on the side of the web 34 of pad material when desired. Plates 28 are, as shown in Fig. 4, longitudinal extensions of the adjustable side plates 35 which lie along the margins of belt 2 I.

The lower and upper belts 20 and 26 and the side plates 28 provide a progressively constricted throat into which the loose uily liber comprising pulp or the like is delivered by belt 2|, and the other mechanism hereinafter to be described. The form of the bat assembled in said throat is obviously determined by the spacing and disposition of the top, bottom and sides of the throat through which the material is forced. The compaction of the material in the throat is determined by the amount of material fed with reference to the cross sectional area through which the material must pass in such throat.

To accomplish the uniform delivery of material into the throat at any desired rate, I place the material in a substantially uniform layer on belt 2| and operate belt 2|, at a speed which is preferably several times as fast as the rate of travel of the belt 20. whereby the pulp or other liber is mechanically projected from belt 2| in in a substantially continuous stream into the throat where it is engaged between the upper and lower paper plies 24 and 23 and conilned between the belts 26 and 20 constituting the top and bottom of the throat to build up the desired bat.

For delivering the pulp uniformly to the projecting belt 2| I provide the means now to be described.

'I'he pulp is commercially available in the form of loosely felted webs such as that shown at 36 in process of delivery from the parent roll 360. The machine shown at 31 diagrammatically illustrates a conventional shredding or pulverizing device for reducing the pulp web 36 to its component pulp bers. The pulp web 36 is fed to the shredding device by means of the feed rolls 38 driven from motor 39 through a reducer 46, whereby the rate of pulp feed may be accurately controlled. The motor 4| drives the shaft 42 of the shredding device 31 and also the runner of the blower 43 which has its inlet connected by pipe 44 with the lower part of the shredder. This blower dellvers the shredded pulp to a centrifugal separator 45 in which the pulp is separated from the air andcollected in the hopper 46. The air escapes in the usual way through the vent pipe 41 in which the draft is preferably regulated by a damper as shown.

A variable speed motor 48 operates another blower 49 to remove the pulp at a controlled rate from hopper 46 and to deliver it to successive pockets of .the rotary metering wheel 50 which is shown ln detail in Figs. 2 and 3. This metering wheel comprises spaced disks and 52 internally shouldered to receive an annular screen 53 outside of which the disks 5| and 52 are connected by radial partitions 54, thus providing a series of pockets 55 Ihaving imperforate side walls, no exterior wall, and a foraminous bottom.

The discharge pipe 56 from the feed blower 49 communicates with an opening 51 in an arcuate shield 58 which closes pockets 55 at one side of the path of rotation of the metering wheel 50. Below the wheel the shield 58 terminates in the discharge bin 66 beneath which the high speed projecting belt 2| operates. Thus each pocket receives a partial charge of pulp fluff through the port 51 at the top of the wheel and carries its partial charge around the wheel in the direction of its clockwise rotation as viewed in Fig. 2 to deliver such partial charge through the discharge bin 60 on to the upper surface of belt 2|.

Aligned with the port 51 through which, the material is admitted to the metering wheel 50, is a vacuum nozzle 62 mounted on pipe 63 and connected through the stationary axle 64 with the vacuum pipe 65 leading to any evacuating pump or blower (not shown). 'Ihe nozzle 62 is made to register between two successive partitions 54 with the intervening pocket 55 into which material is being delivered at any given time from port 51. Thereby the air used to convey suchmaterial from blower 49 to the metering wheel is discharged through the vacuum pipe' 65, along with any fine dust which would merely pack in the sanitary napkin pad without contributing resilience thereto.

Through the other end of the stationary axle skein 64 air under pressure is supplied through pipe 61 to the nozzle 10 which is carried'on a tubular support 69 from the axle skein. The pressure nozzle 16 registers with the lowermost pocket when nozzle 62 registers with the uppermost pocket of wheel 60. The air supplied through nozzle 10 assists in discharging from each successive pocket 55 the material delivered into the pocket for transfer-to the moving projecting belt 2|.

In operation the pockets will be lled to a greater or lesser extent according to the adjustment of the rate changer 48 which regulates the rate of delivery of the pulp to the shredding device. As fast as the pulp is shredded it passes through the blower system to the pockets. The wheel 50 being in constant operation by means of belt 1| from motor 12, it will be apparent that each of the pockets will receive substantially the same quantity of pulp fiber as delivered to each other pocket. 'Ihe successive pock- `ets deliver their successive charges of pulp fiber in a continuous series on belt 2| and that belt projects the charges between the retaining side walls 35 into the constricting and packing throat deiined by belts 20 and 26 and side walls 28.

As'above noted, the various side walls 28 and 35 are adjustable in such manner that the continuous pulp bat built up in the device may be either narrower than the tissue webs 23 and 24, or may be the same width as such webs. The side margins of the bat may be either vertical or may be beveled as indicated in Fig. 5. Since the individual pads are cut transversely as a 1inished web of pad material, thev width of the deposited bat built up in the aforesaid throat will determine the length of the iiller in the pad. 'I'he shape of the margins of the bat will determine the shape of the ends of the successive pads cut therefrom so that if such margins are beveled the ends of the resulting pads will be tapered in thickness.

Inasmuch as the operation of the shredder on the pad material is normally continuous, it is desirable to interrupt the building of the bat during such times as the sanitary napkin machine die is inoperative. For this purpose a return blower system is provided. The blower 13 driven from motor 12 has an inlet pipe 14 extended to the immediate proximity of the aforesaid throat in which the bat is assembled. This blower is in continuous operation and its discharge pipe 15 leads back to the shredder 31.

A damper 16 in the inlet pipe is controlled by a solenoid 11 electrically connected to be energized when the motor |2 of the sanitary napkin machine is energized. When this solenoid is energized the damper 16 will be moved to its closed position. As shown in Fig. 4 the circuit for motor I2 and solenoid 11 is open and the spring 18 has adjusted the damper 16 to its open position, thereby causing blower 13 to suck up the pulp from belt 2| for return thereof to the shredder. As soon as the sanitary napkin machine is set in operation by the energization of motor I2, solenoid 11. will be energized to close the damper 16 against the bias of spring 18, thereby permitting the pulp to pass pipe 14 to be projected into the bat assembling throat as already described.

It will be understood that the pulp returning arrangement is needed only because of the undesirability of interrupting the normally continuous operation of the shredder, which requires an appreciable length of time to start and stop. The feed of vthe tissue plies 23 and 24 can be interrupted by the same solenoid control which opens the valve 16 in the pulp return pipe 14. If some source of pulp other than the shredder were to be used in the apparatus it might not be necessary or desirable to provide the pulp return, since the whole feed, in such case,`might be of such a nature that it could be as readily interrupted as the feed of the tissue plies 23 and 2l.

For convenience of illustration, separate motors have been illustrated to drive many of the separate parts of the apparatus. It will be understood that the use of a central source of power for many or all of the driven elements would not involve any change in the principles herein disclosed.

It will also be understood that substantial changes may be made in the details of this device without in any way altering its fundamental principle or the method which has been described herein and which comprises, broadly, the mechanical projection of brous material into a batten throat having at least one moving wall upon which a bat is continuously assembled of such material.

I claim:

1. A method of manufacturing a bat or web which consists inmechanically projecting brous material into a restricted throat for impact assembly thereof upon previously deposited material and continuously withdrawing from said throat a bat of such material packed therein.

2. The method herein described, which comprises moving two webs along converging lines Y and delivering brous material between said webs to be packed as a bat therebetween.

3. The method of making a bat of brous material, which method consists in continuously projecting loose fibrous material through space for impact assembly upon material previously projected, and continuously moving the assembled bat of caught material away from the point of projection at a rate lower than the rate at which such loose material is projected, whereby the caught material is assembled as a bat by impact.

4. The method herein disclosed, which comprises the projection of fibrous material through space on to material previously projected, and the continuous movement of the previously projected material into a progressively restricted space away from the point of projection and at a rate slower than the rate of projection, whereby the projected material is compacted as a bat.

5. The method herein disclosed, which comprises the uniform distribution of loose fiber in a upon ber previously projected to comprise a bat, and the movement of the bat from the point of projection.

8. 'I'he method herein described, which comprises the deposit of loose ber in substantially uniform distribution on a belt, the movement of said ber on the belt, the lateral restriction of the surface portion of the belt on which said ber distributed, and the mechanical projection of the distributed ber through space from said belt upon ber previously projected to comprise a bat, and the movement of the bat from the point of projection into a space progressively restricted vertically.

9. A device of the character described, comprising the combination with a pair of converging supports and means for feeding paper webs along paths converging between said supports, of

means for mechanically projecting ber through space directly between said webs for advance therewith between said supports.

10. A device of the character described, comprising the combination with a support and means for feeding a web thereover, of a ber feeding device comprising means for projecting loose bers through space at substantial velocities upon said web and previously projected bers in the course of movement of said web and at a rate of movement` materially in excess of the rate of web movement.

A11. A device of the character described comprising the combination with a belt conveyor and a pulley about which said conveyor changes its direction of movement, of means for distributing loose brous material on the surface of' the conveyor, means for actuating the conveyor with supercial layer, the mechanical projection lon- 1 gitudinally through space of the layer of ber so deposited into impact upon ber previously projected, and the continuous removal of the previously projected ber away from the point of projection as a bat.

6. The method herein disclosed, which comprises the movement of two Webs progressively toward each other and the mechanical projection through space at a substantially constant rate of loose ber directly between said Webs upon ber previously projected between said webs, the rate of mechanical projection of loose ber toward previously projected ber being in excess of the rate at which the previously projected ber is advanced and compacted between said webs.

'7. The method herein described, which comprises the deposit of loose ber in substantially uniform distribution on a belt, the movement of said ber on the belt, the lateral restriction of the surface portion of the belt on which said ber is distributed, and the mechanical projection of the distributed ber through space from said belt sufficient rapidity to eilect the mechanical projection of such material from the conveyor at said pulley, and means for catching said material on material previously projected and for moving the projected material from the conveyor.

12. In a device of the character described, the combination with means for shredding fibrous material and means for delivering such material to an assembling conveyor, of means for the operation of said conveyor, and a pneumatic device having a pick-up mouth in proximity to said conveyor, and means for actuating said pneumatic device for the return to said shredder selectively of all material from said conveyor.

a 13. The combination with a cutting die, of means for continuously assembling a bat for delivery to said die, a rst conveyor system for delivering ber to said bat assembly means, a second conveyor system for the return of ber from said assembly means to said conveyor system, and means controlled in the operation of said die for rendering said second conveyor system inoperative, said second conveyor system being operative when said die is inactive,

14. A method of assembling a bat, which comprises the spreading of brous material in substantially uniform distribution in a loose layer, projecting said layer longitudinally through space into contact with material previously projected for impact assembly therewith to constitute a bat, and the progressive withdrawal and progressive restriction of the bat thus deposited at a rate materially less than the rate at which the material is projected through space onto said bat, whereby said bat is initially compacted by the impact of such material thereon.

15. The method herein disclosed, which comprises moving upper and lower webs of cover and bottom ply material in spaced relationship to provide a throat generally lying in a plane between said webs, substantially continuously assembling a thin light layer oi nbrous material in said plane at a point outside of said throat and projecting such layer o! nbrous material substantially continuously through space directly intosaid throat between said plies upon material previously deposited between said plies and at a higher rate than the movement of said plies, whereby to compact the delivered material between said plies to constitute a bat.

16. In .a device of the character described, the combination with a conveyor throat comprising upper and lower belts, the upper belt overhanging the lower, of a projecting belt provided with a pulley disposed adjacent the lower of said thrpat belts and beneath the upper of said throat belts,

means for distributing ilbrous material on the projecting belt, a guide means supporting the projecting belt at its delivery end adjacent said throat and about which said projecting belt abruptly changes its direction, and means for operating said throat belts at one speed and said projecting belt at materially higher rate of speed, whereby to project into the space between said throat belts the material distributed on the projecting belt with sulcient impact to build up a bat of such material between said throat belts.

17. In a device of the character described, the combination with upper and lower throat belts spaced apart and converging toward their respective delivery ends, said belts being provided with means for operating them in the same direction. of means for mechanically projecting fibrous material into the space between said belts at a point remote from their delivery ends, said means comprising a projecting belt provided with a pulley at its delivery end, means for distributing material on the projecting belt, and means for operating said projecting belt at a rate of speed sufficiently high to discharge said material through space and to impact such material upon previously delivered material between said first mentioned belts.

18. A device of the character described, comprising a bat assembling throat having conveyor means for advancing the bat through the throat, and means for delivering material into the throat for assembly as a bat, said material delivering means comprising a conveyor and a rotary wheel for distributing material substantially uniformly upon the face of the conveyor, said wheel having a substantially continuous series of peripheral pockets and being provided with means for delivering material in predetermined quantities to the successive'pockets of the wheel and 'for discharging such material from such pockets onto said last mentioned conveyor.

- CURT G. JOA. 

